


Whatever Tomorrow Brings

by SequinSmile



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon? what Canon, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Fertility Issues, Fluff, I chose to ignore it, IVF, Infertility, Pregnancy, hotchniss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29006952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SequinSmile/pseuds/SequinSmile
Summary: Aaron and Emily are happily married with their dream careers and they are trying to expand their family. What happens when Aaron's past comes back in a way neither of them saw coming, and changes their lives forever?
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Emily Prentiss, Past Aaron Hotchner/Haley Brooks
Comments: 27
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi,
> 
> This idea has been floating around my head for a while, and I've decided to share the first chapter to see if there is any interest in it. 
> 
> This is completely AU from the TV show. There is a lot of explanation in the chapter, but I'll clarify a couple points in the notes at the end. 
> 
> Trigger warning: As it says in the tags this story does mention infertility/fertility issues. Other warnings will be tagged in future chapters.

Aaron groaned as his alarm clock woke up him from his peaceful sleep. He rolled over expecting to see his wife, who was not a morning person at all, still fast asleep or resisting waking up. She surprised him by being awake, but lying flat on her back with her eyes closed and taking purposeful breaths in and out. He rolled onto his side and opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing, but was interrupted by her fingers covering his mouth.

“Shh, I’m practising mindfulness.” She whispered, not even opening her eyes to look at him. 

He lovingly rolled his eyes at her slightly before pressing a kiss to her fingers and grabbing her hand in his. “I think you’re meant to do that before you go to sleep Em, not first thing in the morning.” 

She sighed at him and opened her eyes, looking directly at him. “You do it whenever you want to relieve stress, Aaron.” 

He tucked her hair behind her ear and leant down to quickly kiss her. “Big day today.”

“Yeah,” She breathed out. “Big day.” 

Her hand that wasn’t still held in his drifted down over the bed covers to rest on her stomach. After weeks of treatments, injections and an egg retrieval today was the day she was getting an embryo transfer. 

“You ok?” He sat up to lean against the headboard, pulling her up with him and settling with his arm her shoulder.

Emily nodded, “Yeah. I’m ok. It just feels like a lot to take in. After everything we’ve been through trying to have a baby I could be pregnant by the end of the day. Not that we’ll know for a couple weeks.” 

They had been married for six years and trying to have a baby for two. He tightened his hold on her slightly as he remembered all those months when her period would come, her disappointment turning into sadness and eventually into despair. She had been damn near inconsolable when the doctor told them she would struggle to conceive naturally. It had taken him a long time to convince her she wasn’t at fault for what was happening. 

“Are you sure you want to go to work this morning?” He asked, still unsure that it was the right thing to do.

She turned her head into his chest and pressed a kiss against him, “Definitely, I need something to distract me until this afternoon,” She mumbled into his t-shirt before pulling away to look at him, the mischievous glint in her eyes that he loved so much, “Besides, we’ll already be out later - I don’t think the BAU could survive a whole day without the Unit or the Section chief.” 

They had only been in their perspective new roles for six months. Strauss had left the department and Aaron had been the natural choice for her replacement. Emily’s own promotion had come as a shock to her, and at first she had wanted to turn it down not wanting it to seem like nepotism with her husband promoting her. It took a meeting with Aaron’s superior to convince her that order had come from above her husbands head. 

“I’ll tell Morgan you said that.” He joked kissing her before he god out of bed to start the day, laughing at the sound of outrage that he heard coming from her.

“You will do no such thing!” She called after him as she followed him into their ensuite.  
____________________________

Emily nervously tapped her foot as she sat at her desk watching the clock. The morning had dragged by, and her aim of distracting herself with work had failed. She blew out a breath as she tried to centre herself as she waited for her husband to meet her in her office. 

She looked down at the wedding photo she kept on her desk and smiled, picking it up to inspect it closer. She couldn’t believe it had been six years. It was a beautiful day that, despite her mother’s heavy involvement in both the proceedings and the guest list, she considered to be perfect. The photo in her hands was one of her favourites from the day, a candid shot of them where she was laughing looking past the camera, and he was pressing a kiss to her temple - visibly smiling himself as he did so. No sign of the broken hearted man she had met three years before their wedding. 

She was 22 when they first met and he was 29, working as a security detail for her mother. Emily was back from Yale and had immediately noticed the somber looking agent. She convinced him to go for a drink with her, which had been no mean feat given his aptitude to remain professional at all times, and once he had a few drinks in him he’d told her all about his high school sweetheart turned ex-fiancé who had left him only a matter of months before they were due to get married. 

They become friends after that, her always choosing to spend time with him rather than the people her mother wanted her to be with, him supporting her as she joined the bureau herself. It took a couple months for it to develop into something else. Emily had been the one to take the chance when she kissed him in a dark corner of the embassy when her mother was holding a gala. 

They went out for two years before he proposed, and the wedding happened around ten months after that. Her parents had been against their relationship from the beginning - citing Emily and Aaron’s age gap among many other things that made their union inappropriate. 

That all changed when Aaron was injured during his SWAT days just after they got engaged, and Emily had been with them when she got the call. Seeing how in love their daughter was with the man who had once been just another security detail at their estate, and how devastated she had been at the prospect of losing him, had made them come around. 

It hadn’t all been plain sailing, but they loved each other fiercely. He had often told her over the years how she had put him back together so many times he didn’t know who he was without her anymore. Whilst she felt the same way, she would always scrunch her nose at the declaration and tell him he was corny, before kissing him into oblivion. 

“Em,” His voice from her office door shook her out of her revere, she looked up at him and he smiled at her, “Ready to go?”

She stood from her desk grabbed her coat and bag. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” 

They walked together down to the main bullpen and she stopped by her teams desks. 

“We’ll be back tomorrow. Try not to break anything whilst I’m gone, I really don’t fancy doing the paperwork and the Section Chief is a real hard ass.” She teased, smiling when she heard Aaron scoff behind her. 

Morgan and JJ laughed and nodded in response, and Reid smiled along too. They all knew how important today was to their friends. 

“Of course, boss.” Morgan replied saluting her in jest. 

JJ got up from her seat and pulled Emily into a hug, which Emily gratefully accepted and she hugged her friend back.

“Thanks guys.” She replied as she pulled away from JJ, moving back to her husbands side. “Call if you need anything.”  
They all nodded, but Aaron’s face from behind his wife indicated if they were to call her that afternoon there would be hell to pay. 

_________________________________

Aaron pressed his hand onto his wife’s knee as it bounced repeatedly up and down, trying to stop the motion. She was momentarily distracted by a text alert from her phone, reaching into her bag and apologising softly to the other people in the fertility clinic waiting room as she fished it out and put it on silent. She laughed to herself as she saw the text from Garcia on her screen, before tilting it so he could read it.

Can’t believe you left without saying goodbye! Good luck Hotchners, hope you get knocked up. 

“Emily Hotchner?” A voice called out from the other side of the waiting room, drawing both of their attention to the nurse stood there. They both indicated she was who the nurse was looking for. “Right this way please.” She said kindly.

The couple looked at each other briefly and stood, her grasping his hand immediately before they walked away from the waiting room and into a procedure room.  
______________________________

“They said I could do the majority of my normal activities Aaron, I think I can walk into the kitchen and get my own ice cream.” She chastised as he insisted she stayed where she was sat on their couch. 

“Hey, I’m taking the chance to spoil my wife who had a medical procedure today. Let me.” He responded, his face pure Section Chief Hotch as opposed to her husband Aaron. She watched in amusement as he disappeared into their house towards their kitchen. 

She loved their house. Until they moved there three years ago when they initially thought about extending their family they had been living in a condo in DC itself. Moving into the suburbs of Crosspointe, Virginia had been and adjustment for both them but they loved the sense of normality it gave them when they came home from a tough day at work. 

“Here you go.” He said, returning to the couch with a bowl of ice cream for each of them. 

“Thanks.” She replied taking her bowl from him as he sat down. They sat in silence as they ate and pretended to be invested in whatever trash tv she had put on when they initially sat down for the evening. “I wish I knew, or felt different.” She eventually said around a mouthful of ice cream. 

“What do you mean, sweetheart?”

She looked at him and smiled, a bit sadly, “I don’t know really, I just wish I felt-” She paused, unsure how to finish.

“Pregnant?” He offered, placing his hand on her knee after he put his bowl down on the coffee table in front of the. 

“Yeah. I guess.” She replied, placing her now empty bowl next to his. She moved into him, leaning her head on his chest. “This is going to be a long two weeks.” 

Over the coming months Emily would look back on that statement and realise just how right she was.

____________________________

The next day Emily was stood behind her desk, grabbing some paperwork before she headed to a briefing when she heard a knock at her door. 

“Come in.” She called out without looking up from her desk. 

“I’m sorry, I was told this was Unit Chief Hotchner’s office.” A woman’s voice she didn’t recognise said from the door. Emily looked up and looked up at the woman in question. She was blonde and petite, and there was something vaguely familiar about her to Emily. She seemed nervous as she fiddled with the visitor badge attached to her coat lapel. 

“Well I’m the Unit Chief, and my married name is Hotchner,” Emily explained, letting out a small laugh, indicating that the woman could move further into the room with her hand. “Sometimes people around here forget I work under my maiden name. My husband is the Section Chief though, if you are looking for him.” 

She rambled slightly, something about the stranger in her office, combined with the emotions of the day before were throwing her off her game. The woman opposite her shifted awkwardly on her feet and moved towards her desk. 

“Can I help you at all, ma’am?” 

“You’re married to Aaron Hotchner?” The woman asked, a tone to her voice that almost sounded accusatory. Emily saw recognition on the other woman’s face as she took in the wedding photo she had on her desk, before looking back at Emily and looking her up and down.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Emily asked, narrowing her eyes slightly in confusion about how this stranger knew her husband. 

The other woman let out a sigh, “I’m Haley Brooks. I used to know Aaron a long time ago.” 

The realisation hit Emily immediately. She was stood in front of the woman who had broken her husbands heart before she met him. The only other woman Aaron had ever loved.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the reviews and kudos on the last chapter - I was blown away!!

For the first time since they started working together Emily internally groaned when she saw her husband in the hallway as she walked to her meeting. She hadn’t even begun to figure out how she was going to explain that his ex-fiancé had been stood in her office just minutes ago. What she had decided was she wasn’t going to tell him until they were home, and she hoped she would be able to avoid him until the end of the working day.

He could read her like a book. Since the day she had met him she had never been able to keep anything from him. Emily knew the second their eyes met that today was no different. He frowned slightly as they crossed each other in the hallway and he came to a stop at her side.

“Em-” He started, but she interrupted before he could go any further. 

“I’ve got to go, Aaron I’ve got a meeting.” She tried to walk away but he grabbed her wrist and turned her back to him.

“Emily are you ok?” He hesitated for a second before his eyes flicked down her body to her abdomen. “Has something happened? Do we need to go to the doctor.” 

“Oh God, no.” She assured him, kicking herself mentally for making him assume the worst. “I’m ok I promise. We can talk when we get home later, ok?” 

He nodded at that, seemingly placated by her reassurance, and he let go of her wrist. 

“Come by my office when you’re done for the day. I’ll wait for you.” She said as she walked away, leaving her concerned husband behind her.

________________________________

When he entered the BAU’s bullpen at the end of the day he saw the team grabbing their go bags. Emily had grounded herself for the next couple of weeks, and placed Morgan as acting agent in charge on away cases, whilst they waited to see if the IVF had been successful, and he had been grateful she had made that decision herself. Aaron was smart enough to know that if she did end up pregnant he would have an uphill battle convincing her to not go in the field, but that was a conversation that he was trying to avoid, as both her boss and her husband, until it was necessary. 

“You guys catch a case?” Aaron asked Morgan as he approached him.

“Yeah, we’re off to Nevada.” He explained, “Hey man, is she ok?” Morgan asked, tilting his head towards Emily’s office. “Did everything go ok yesterday?

Aaron followed the other mans gaze to his wife’s office and he saw that the door was closed, which in itself was unusual. “Everything went as expected.” He looked back at Morgan. “How has she been acting?” 

Morgan shrugged slightly, lifting his go bag further up his shoulder. “A bit on edge, distracted almost, not fully herself. I assumed you had done something to piss her off.” He smirked.

Aaron smiled at his friend, “Not as far as I am aware.” 

Morgan patted him on the shoulder as he walked past him. “Fix it, man. For all our sakes.” 

Aaron made his way up to Emily’s office and gave the door a quick knock before letting himself in. “Ready to go, sweetheart?” 

Emily looked up to him from her paperwork. “Yeah, just give me a second.” She smiled at him the way she smiled at her mother when she was unhappy about an event they were being forced to go to, and that worried him even more.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

Emily sighed loudly as she stood up from her desk, briefly looking at him as he smiled at the wedding photo Haley had been staring at only a few hours before. 

“Aaron, I’m ok. I really want to go home. I promise I’ll tell you when we get there.” She gathered her things and a few case files and walked to stand by his side. She kissed his cheek gently, which in itself crossed their very clear cut professional line they had drawn years ago. “I’m ok.” She repeated, knowing he was still worried.

“Let’s go then.” 

They walked out her office together and down the stairs to the main bullpen and then out towards the elevator.

“It feels weird that they have gone without me.” She remarked as they stood next to each other. 

He turned to look at her to see if she seemed upset by it, but she looked ok. “Do you still think you made the right choice to ground yourself for the next couple weeks?”

“Definitely. If anything happens I wouldn’t want to be half way across the country from you.” She moved her hand to thread into his interlocking their fingers.

“You’re breaking all sorts of rules this evening.” He quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

Emily laughed at him and stepped forward into the elevator as the doors opened, pulling him along with her. “You bring it out in me, my mother would say you’ve been leading me astray for years.”

“If only she knew it was the other way around.” 

He laughed as she made an outraged sound and hit him lightly in the chest. For the first time since Haley had walked into her office that morning Emily felt like things were ok, but she knew it wouldn’t last. 

___________________________

She knew as soon as they were home she wouldn’t be able to put him off much longer. She took off her boots at the door, and by the time she had turned around he was sat on the couch in the living room looking at her expectantly. 

Emily took a deep breath and walked over to the couch and sat next to him. She sat close enough that her thigh pressed into his. She was unsure how to tell him what had happened in her office that morning. Emily had always been very secure in their relationship, and she knew he was completely and irrevocably committed to her, but having the only other woman he had loved show up had shaken her. 

She couldn’t help but wonder what her life would look like if Haley hadn’t left Aaron, if he had already been married when they met. Maybe she would have taken that job at Interpol she’d been offered when she joined the bureau. 

“Em?” His voice broke her out of her revere. He looked so concerned it made her heart ache.

She took a deep breath. “Haley came to my office today.” 

“Haley?” He looked confused for a moment, before realisation dawned on his face. “Hayley Brooks?” 

Emily nodded in response, biting her lip slightly as she tried to figure out what he was thinking. “She was looking for you, but someone in security directed her to my office. I don’t know when the message is going to get through that we’ve both been promoted and that I’ve never worked under my married name.” She attempted to joke, rambling a little bit since the blank stare on his face made her feel uncharacteristically flustered.

“What did she want?” He asked, his eyes finally meeting hers.

“I don’t know. She seemed quite taken aback that I was your wife.” She reached out and grabbed his hand, “I told her you were busy, I didn’t think you’d appreciate being blind sighted by her showing up in your office.” 

He laughed wryly at that. “You seem to have handled it just fine.”

She smiled in response, “Well I’ve always been better at compartmentalising than you.” She placed a hand at the nape of his neck and ran her fingers through his hair. “I have her number so you can call her. If you want to.”

“I don’t understand why she’s here after all this time. She left me by leaving a note and the ring I gave her. I came home and she was just gone.”

Emily knew that, she had done for years and she had hated Haley for it. For hurting this man who, despite being incredibly reserved to the outside world, loved with every part of him. Over the years Emily became thankful towards Haley, knowing that if she hadn’t been stupid enough to walk away from his man she would never have known what it was like to be loved like that. 

“It seemed important.” Emily said, still providing comfort by running her fingers back and forth over the nape of his neck. “She seemed almost sad.” 

They sat in silence for several minutes, both of them contemplating the next step. 

“What are you thinking?” She asked softly not wanting him to internalise this too much.

“I think I should call her. Maybe have her come here so I can hear what she has to say.” He looked at his wife intently to see if she disagreed with that idea, but she just smiled at him.

“Ok, let's do that then.” 

“Will you be here when she comes?”

Emily scoffed at that, “Like I’m leaving you alone with the one other woman on this planet that you once proposed to.” 

_______________________

Haley had taken them up on their offer, and suggested the following day. Her urgency to see Aaron concerned Emily a bit and for what felt like the 100th time in the last 24 hours she was trying to figure out the other woman’s motives.

Emily was on the phone to Morgan when the doorbell rang getting an update about the case, and she heard Aaron open the door and greet Haley. Once she hung up the phone she blew out a breath and left the kitchen to approach them.

She was starting to wonder if this had been a good idea. Feeling uncomfortable in her own home was not something she was used to since she moved out of her parents house and in with Aaron, and it was not something she had missed. 

“Haley, would you like a drink?” She offered, wringing her hands together as she took in the sight of Aaron and Haley stood in front of her just inside their house. 

“A black coffee would be nice, thanks.” Haley responded, clearly feeling just as uncomfortable. 

Emily nodded and then turned to Aaron, “Babe, do you want anything?” 

Despite the circumstances, Aaron suppressed a smirk at that. Emily wasn’t someone who used pet names a lot, and when she did she certainly didn’t say ‘babe.’ She was marking her territory and not being particularly subtle. 

“The usual would be great, sweetheart.” 

She smiled briefly at him before walking towards their kitchen, leaving Aaron and Haley alone for the first time she she had arrived.

“She’s impressive.” Haley said, drawing Aaron’s attention away from his retreating wife. “She’s younger.” 

“Haley.” 

“She would have been what, 9 when we met in high school?” 

“Haley.” His voice was firm this time, stopping her from going any further and crossing a line he wouldn’t accept.

“Sorry. When I met her yesterday I looked her up. She seems incredible.”

“You don’t have to tell me how amazing my wife is, Haley. I’m the one who married her.” 

They stood in silence then until Emily returned holding a mug for each of them, she was surprised to find them both still stood in the entrance to the house. “Shall we sit down?” She suggested, gesturing towards the living room.

Emily placed Haley’s mug on the coffee table in front of couch and signalled for her to sit there. She then moved to the love seat to the right of the couch and sat down, placing both her and Aaron’s mugs down on the edge of the table. He sat next to her and placed his hand on her knee, needing the tangible connection. Emily understood, as she always did, and placed her hand on top of his linking their fingers. 

Haley angled her body slightly so she could face them, and picked up her mug so she had something to do with her hands. “You have a lovely home.” 

“Thank you.” Emily replied, feeling like she could cut the tension in the air with a knife. 

“How long have you guys been together?” She asked taking a sip of her coffee. 

Emily wasn’t sure why Haley was asking, since she knew that this was not why Haley had shown up at Quantico the day before, but she found herself answering anyway. “Almost nine years. We’ve been married for six.”

Haley scoffed slightly at that, muttering into her coffee as she took another sip. “Didn’t take you long to move on then, Aaron.” 

“Excuse me?” Emily asked, starting to get frustrated.

“I’m sorry,” Haley apologised, sounding genuine. “That was uncalled for. This isn’t how I wanted this to go at all.” She paused for a moment before looking up at them. “Do you want to have any kids?”

Haley would tell they didn’t have any yet since the house she was in so clearly was only occupied by adults, and whilst there were plenty of photos of Emily and Aaron everywhere there weren’t any photos of any children. 

That question threw Emily for a second, and her mind immediately went to the pregnancy test in their medicine cabinet in their bathroom waiting for when she was allowed to take it. The 12 days she had left to find out if the embryo transfer had been successful were looking like they would be the longest days of her life. 

Aaron finally spoke up, knowing where Haley’s last question would have lead his wife’s thoughts. “Why are you here Haley?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you here? You certainly aren’t here to question us about our relationship since you didn’t know I was married before you met Emily yesterday. You have shown up here nine and a half years after you left me without even saying goodbye and you are stalling.” 

Emily tightened her hold on his hand slightly, and used the hand that wasn’t grasped in his to loop around his arm pulling herself slightly closer to him. He was speaking to Haley like she was an unsub and Emily wanted to cool the situation down a bit. 

“I did feel bad about how I left, Aaron. I should apologise for that. I think I’ll be apologising to you for a lot of things.”

“Now? So many years down the line?” He asked incredulously, “There has to be a reason.”

Haley sighed, placing the mug down on the coffee table before looking at her hands. “I couldn’t tell you in person that I was leaving because I would have chickened out.” She looked up at the couple in front of her and she knew what she was about to say was going to change their lives, and she felt sorry for them. “I would have ended up telling you that I was pregnant.” 

“What?” Aaron said, his shock colouring his face and voice. Emily tightened her grip on him even further.

“I was pregnant when I left. You have a son, Aaron.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that - please let me know what you think. 
> 
> I'd like like to make it clear now that this won't be a Haley bashing fic. She was a good person in the series, even though she made some questionable decisions, and I am hoping to reflect that in this story. 
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> SequinSmile x


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> As always thank you for the kudos and comments - they always make my day! 
> 
> I'm going to do one per chapter to reveal a little bit of Emily/Aaron goodness from the start of their relationship up until where we found them at the start of this story. Flashbacks will be in italics.

_March 1993_

_He wasn’t sure why he was doing this, but there was something bout the ambassadors daughter that drew him to her._

_Her obvious beauty was part of it, he couldn’t deny that, but it was also something about the way she carried herself. She was enticing, insanely intelligent and also, as he had learnt in the few weeks they had known each other, very funny. She was everything he knew her mother would want to be, but he could also tell she was more than that and that she wanted more than the world she had been brought up in could offer._

_Emily had been spending a fair amount of time with him when he was on duty recently, keeping him company despite her mothers obvious disapproval at the friendship they had formed. He had tried to keep a distance when Emily suggested they spent time together outside of his working hours in her house, he was after all a professional through and through and Emily was for all intents and purposes someone he was meant to be protecting, but she was nothing if not persistent._

_Which is how Aaron found himself in a bar in downtown DC, under the guise that Emily wanted to know more about the application of applying for the Bureau herself now she was done with college. She immediately admitted that she had done plenty of research and knew she was still too young to apply since she wasn't 23 yet, and that she had just wanted to spend some time with him alone._

_Aaron couldn’t bring himself to even feel the slightest bit put out by that as they fell into an easy conversation._

_“You speak how many foreign languages?” He asked incredulously, watching with some amusement as she put down her beer to count on her fingers._

_“Six, although only four of them fluently.” She seemed to blush slightly at the look on his face, which seemed to be a mix of disbelief and awe. “I can get by in Russian and Greek.”_

_“Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds,” He took a sip of his scotch, “You can ‘get by’ in Russian and Greek and I barely scraped a B in AP French.”_

_Emily laughed at that, “If I’d been living in the country at the time I could have tutored you.”_

_“I was in senior year Emily, you would have been what, 10? 11?”_

_“I still could have tutored you. I’ve spoken French my whole life. I’d have got you that A” She had a teasing look on her face, and it didn’t take a genius to know she was flirting with him. He suppressed a smile back at her. He was starting to feel like he was on dangerous territory._

_“I actually had a French tutor.” He murmured, “Although we didn’t spend a huge amount of time studying. She was also my girlfriend.”_

_“How long were you with her?”_

_“She left me 6 months ago.” As soon as he said it Aaron wasn’t sure why he had. Something about the combination of the alcohol and Emily’s presence clearly made him an open book._

_“Shit, Aaron. I’m sorry. You were together a long time.” She sounded, and looked, genuine. And for the first time since he had sat next to her that night the mischievous flirty look in her eyes faded away._

_“We were engaged.”_

_“Shit.” Emily cursed again, and signalled to the barmen to get them the same drinks again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring all this up.”_

_“It’s not your fault, Emily.” He picked up his new drink and took a gulp from it. “She didn’t even say goodbye. She just left a note with the ring on top of it.”_

_Emily wasn’t even sure he was aware he’d said the last part out loud, but she could see how he was blaming himself for what happened. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch him, but physical connection was a line they had not yet crossed. She resisted, for now, deciding that was something for another day. “She really did a number on you didn’t she?”_

_He looked up at the young woman in front of him and took a sip of his drink, “What do you mean?”_

_“Your ex. She really has you convinced you aren’t good for anyone.”_

_Aaron let out a mirth filled laugh at that and took the final sip of his scotch before putting the glass back down on the bar. “My dedication to my job pushed her away. She didn’t want to be several years down the line married to a man who spent more time at work than he did at home.”_

_If he was honest he remembered every word of the note Haley had left him. He had read it over and over again in the weeks after she left, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Emily. He wasn’t even sure why he was telling her anything in the first place._

_“Well, if you ask me-”_

_“Which I didn’t.”_

_“If you ask me,” She repeated, continuing as if he hadn’t spoken, “She’s an idiot. One day she’ll realise she let one of the only good guys out there get away.”_

_He raised an eyebrow at that and properly smiled at her for the first time since she had sat next to him at the bar that evening. “You think so?”_

_“I know so.” She smiled back at him, acutely aware of the butterflies she felt in her stomach when he smiled widely enough she could see his dimples. “So, Agent Hotchner, are you going to buy me another drink?”_

_He nodded and signalled the barman again. It wasn’t until after Emily kisses him at one of her mother’s events two weeks later that he considered how much the night in the bar had changed things between them._

__________________________________________

Haley’s words bring almost bring the world to a standstill. She watches the couple in front of her try and process the bomb she has just dropped on their lives, when neither of them speak she offers more details. 

“His name is Jack.” She says, aware of the tremor in her own voice, as she pulls a photo of him out of her purse and places it on the coffee table sliding it over to them. That seems to bring Emily out of her trance. 

Emily turns to look at her husband, having felt his hand that had been gripping hers tightly go slack, and she took in the blank expression on his face. Her eyes flick back towards the photo on the table before she swallows against the lump in her throat. 

“Haley,” She addresses the woman opposite her as she stood, slipping out of her husbands lose grasp. “I think you should go.” 

Haley furrows her brow, looking as if she is going to argue. 

“We clearly have a lot to talk about, but Aaron and I need to process this. Alone.” Her voice leaves no room for argument, and she hopes Haley doesn’t hear the slight shake in it. 

Haley nods at that, “I understand.” She gathers her things, leaving the photo on the table, and follows Emily towards the front door. Once the door is opened Haley steps through, and turns back to look at the younger woman married to the man she had once loved. “I am sorry, truly. I didn’t have a choice. 

Emily nods mindlessly, trying to figure out what Haley meant by that, but her usual faculties fail her because of all of the information she is trying to process. “We’ll call.” She barely waits for the other woman to nod before closing the door. 

She allows herself a moment stood there facing the door to try and pull herself together. Emily closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before turning around to head back towards the living room. She sighs when she sees it is now empty, her husband having apparently left the room when she was showing Haley out. Emily approaches the coffee table and picks up the photo left there by Haley with slightly shaky hands and her breath hitches in her throat as she looks at the picture properly for the first time. 

His hair is a light brown and he looks a lot like Haley at first glance. His eyes are a deep hazel colour, and she would recognise the dimples brought forward by his wide grin anywhere. She can tell just by looking at him that the young boy is undeniably her husbands. 

________________________________________ 

She gives him a bit of space. It allows her time to compartmentalise her own feelings about what Haley had revealed. Emily couldn’t believe that it was just yesterday when the other woman appeared in her office searching for Aaron, she felt like she had lived a thousand lifetimes since then. 

She was conflicted. She couldn’t understand why Haley had kept this from Aaron. He was a good man, the best, and he would have stuck by her if he had known about his son. He wanted to be a father so much, which was something that had always fed fuel to the fire of her own heartbreak over their difficulty conceiving their own child. Emily stood outside of her husbands slightly ajar office door, and found herself hating Haley for her choices. For keeping Aaron from his son. 

She also, on a level she hated herself for, was grateful for what Haley had done. If Aaron had known that Haley was pregnant he wouldn’t have let her go. Emily knew that for a fact. Her husband was fiercely loyal, almost to a fault, and there is no way he would have let Haley walk away. Emily was grateful because Haley’s choices meant she had Aaron and his loyalty all to herself. 

She wondered absently what kind of person that made her, to feel even slightly grateful her husband had lost time with a son he didn’t know existed. 

“I know you’re out there, Em. You can come in.” His voice called through the slightly open door. 

Emily took a deep breath, shoved all of her feelings into a little box in her head so she could be there for her husband, and she walked in. He was sat in his office chair, looking grimly ahead eyes fixed on the wall as he held a glass of barely touched scotch in his hand. She knew him well enough to know this was his first glass, his feelings around alcohol firmly routed in his relationship with his father. His gaze moved to her, the frown on his face slipping slightly. 

“Are you ok?” He asks, moving his chair back slightly in silent invitation for her to join him. 

She scoffs at him as she walks over. “Am I ok? I’m worried about you.” She sits in his lap, grateful for the physical contact as one of his arms loops around her. They sit in silence, not the comfortable one that usually can enjoy together, as both of them try to figure out what to say. Eventually, it’s her who speaks first. “What do you want to do?” 

He takes a small sip of his drink before putting the tumbler on his desk. “I don’t know.” And he didn’t. For the first time in a long time Aaron Hotchner didn’t know what to do, and he didn’t like the feeling. It was several minutes before he spoke again. “We should probably ask for a DNA test before we do anything else.” 

Emily hums in response, knowing he’s right. She doesn’t say that whilst Haley is a lot of things, she doesn’t think she is someone who would lie about this. She doesn’t mention that the photo of the little boy downstairs on their coffee table looks so much like him it fractured her heart. 

“Why would she do this?” He asks, his voice almost unrecognisable to her. She isn’t sure if he’s asking why Haley had kept this from him for so long, or why she was telling him now, but she can’t answer either question for him. 

She brings her hand to his face, brushing stray hair from his forehead from where he had clearly been running his hands through it in frustration. “I don’t know, honey.” She isn’t one for nicknames usually, although she loves when he uses them on her, but when he needs comforting they fall out of her before she can stop them. “I wish I could help you.” 

He wraps his arms around her tighter. “You are helping. Just by being you.” 

She smiles at him, although it doesn’t reach her eyes, and presses a kiss to his cheek. “We’ll figure this out together, ok? Just like we always do.” 

He nods in response. “You’re ok, right?” He asked, his hand drifting down to her stomach. “The doctor said you should try and stay as stress free as possible.” 

When the doctor had said that after the embryo transfer she assumed any relevant stress would be around work, so had taken the necessary precautions. This was something they couldn’t have foreseen at all, and Emily wanted so badly to go back in time 48 hours when her biggest frustration was her husband forcing her to sit on the couch whilst he got her ice cream. 

“I’m ok.” She answers, putting her hand over his. “No changes. You know I’d tell you if there were.” 

“I love you more than anything.” He says firmly, an intensity in his eyes she usually only sees at work. “You know that, right?” 

She wonders, not for the first time since they became them, if he can read her mind. Or if her insecurities around Haley’s reappearance were obvious to him even though she has desperately decided to shove them away. Despite everything that has happened in the last two days, she knows he’s telling the truth. “I know.” She replies, leaning her forehead against his. “I love you too.” 

He moves his head slightly so he can press a kiss to her forehead. “We should go to bed.” He murmurs against her skin. 

“In a minute.” She tightens her hold against him, not wanting to break this tiny sanctuary they had created curled up in his desk chair in his office. 

He kisses her forehead again, before resting his chin on the top of her head and bringing a hand up to stroke her hair. “In a minute.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't think I've let Haley get off lightly there, there will be words between her and Aaron in the coming chapters. I just felt like it was important for Emily and Aaron to try and process the shock together. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> SequinSmile x


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> As per, thanks for all the comments and kudos - they mean so much!

Haley was initially offended by the request to do a DNA test on her son, but relents quickly to their request. It had been two weeks since Haley had appeared in her office and a week since they had sent off the test, meaning the results would likely arrive today. 

Emily was in her office trying to concentrate on paperwork when a knock on her door caught her attention. She looked up to see JJ standing there, looking at her with concern.

“Are those the latest cases we’ve been contacted about? Emily asks gesturing to the files in JJ’s hands. 

JJ nods and walks over to pass her the files, “Yeah these are just a few of the ones we’ve had contact about this week.”

“Thanks, JJ.” Emily returns her attention to the work she was doing, expecting JJ to leave, but she notices her friend is still stood there staring at her. “Are you ok?” 

“Emily, are you ok? You don’t seem yourself.”

“I’m fine, JJ. I promise you.” They had decided to keep everything under wraps for now until they were more used to the news themselves, and until it was confirmed. Emily knew it was the right thing to do but it also meant that the only person she could talk to about it was Aaron, and she didn’t want to burden him with her own feelings about the matter when he was struggling with his own. 

“I may not be a profiler like the rest of you, but I know when someone is lying to me.” 

Emily sighs and drags in a deep breath, closing her eyes against the emotions she is desperately trying to keep in the box she has shoved them into. “JJ. Please leave it.” She begs, and her friend relents, knowing that Emily doesn’t beg for anything. 

“If you need to talk you know where I am.” 

Emily nods grimly, but her voice is sincere. “Thank you.” 

_______________________________________

When they get home from work that day she checks the mailbox almost immediately, and sees a letter from the company they had used for the DNA test. Emily takes it into the house and passes it to Aaron. For a moment they both just stare at the envelope, sat at their kitchen counter, knowing their lives were likely about to change. Eventually, after what feels like a lifetime, he opens it. The look on his face tells her it’s the result she’s been expecting all along. 

He has a son. 

Emily can’t help but wonder how they will explain this to everyone. She briefly thinks of what her mother’s reaction will be. Whilst her initial reaction to their relationship had been less than favourable, since their wedding Elizabeth had been a lot more accommodating towards Aaron, and she often was taken aback by the slight fondness her mother and husband for each other. They sit in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say. When Emily can’t bear he silence anymore she places her hand over his. “What are we going to do next?” 

“I don’t know. Ask to meet him I guess.” He replies, finally placing the letter down on the counter. 

“Is that what you want?” 

“Of course I want to meet my son, Emily.” He bristles, and she removes her hand from his like she’s been burned. 

“I wasn’t suggesting you didn’t,” She implores,“it’s just all happened so fast. Two weeks ago you didn’t know he existed.” 

“I probably need to reach out to Haley.” 

“Yeah, you do.” She nods, not particularly wanting to continue acting as their go between as she had done the last two weeks. She gets up from where she is sat to busy herself. She starts to make a cup of tea, even though she doesn’t want one, just to do something with her hands. She places a mug down on the counter before turning back to him, deciding in that moment she needs to say what she’s been putting off since Haley came to their house two weeks ago. “I think something else is going on here.”  


“What do you mean? The test was definitive.” He gestures to the piece of paper right in front of him. 

“Not that.” She almost says she knew the little boy was his the second she saw the photo of him. That without Haley’s lighter hair and nose he looked almost exactly like she had pictured their own child in all the months she failed to get pregnant. She doesn’t say it though, knowing now isn’t the time. “I think Haley is hiding something.” 

He furrows his brow at her, clearly not agreeing with her assessment of the situation. “What makes you say that?”

“It doesn’t add up. Why now? She didn’t know about us so she clearly didn’t go to a huge amount of effort to look you up, but I also don’t think this was an impulse. There is something going on that she hasn’t told us yet. When she was here she said to me that she didn’t have a choice. I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to figure out what she meant.” 

“I know this is a lot for you to take in, but I think you’re too close to it, Em.”

“Of course I’m too close to it.” She exclaims, abandoning the tea making process entirely. “My husbands ex-fiancee just showed up with a kid she’s been keeping secret from him.” She can feel her temper rising, unsure why he won’t face the truth. “That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“You don’t know her like I do. ” He attempts to leave no room for argument, a tone she has heard him use on unsubs but never on her, and suddenly something inside of her snaps. 

“You don’t know her, Aaron.” She yells, more angry than she ever remembers being with him, and she hates herself for it. It’s not his fault everything has changed anymore than it is hers, but she’s hormonal from all the fertility treatments, and tired and just so sad over about the confirmation that he has a son with another woman. “You _knew_ her. A long time ago. The Haley you knew and told me about would not have kept your son away from you for almost a decade.”

“Em-” He’s angry too, indignant in his rage. 

She interrupts him, still so angry at him she can’t think straight. “So I may not know her, but you don’t either. What I do know is that something else is going on here. She hasn’t just shown up after all these years deciding she wants you in her sons life.” She wipes a lone tear off her face with the heel of her hand in frustration. “If you don’t trust me as your wife to see it, because I’m ‘too close’ to it, at least trust me as the profiler you once said was one of the best.” 

She turns to walk away, to give them both the space they desperately need, but as she reaches the bottom of the stairs she turns back to him. “I can’t even imagine how difficult this is for you,” her voice is calmer now, and she almost sounds defeated. “But don’t think for a minute this is easy for me.” 

“I know it isn’t.” He replies, her admission making his own frustration recede. He takes a step towards her but frowns when she steps backwards that takes her up one of the steps.

“I’m going to bed, Aaron.” She clears her throat. “I’m going to sleep in the spare room. We both need some space, and you need to think.”

He wants to argue with her, he wants to tell her that he needs her, but he doesn’t. He nods and lets her walk up the stairs.

It isn’t until he hears the slamming of the guest room door that he thinks about the fact it’s barely 7pm. 

_______________________________________

Things are tense between them for four incredibly long days. Emily overheard him talking to Haley on the phone a couple of times, arranging a time and place to meet his son, and it hurts her more than she’d care to admit. 

One of her fears in the early stages of their relationship was what would happen if Haley had appeared and wanted Aaron back. Emily had never told him that and as time went on her concerns lessened. By the time he proposed to her, Haley never crossed her mind as a threat anymore, just as a woman whose actions had allowed Emily to know the love of a man like Aaron Hotchner. 

Those fears had all come rushing back in the nearly three weeks it had been since Haley had showed up in her office. It wasn’t rational and she knew it, but the thought had kept her awake the last few nights as she laid beside him in silence. 

“Tell me what you are thinking.” His voice breaks through her revere, and she realises she’s been stood at the kitchen counter stirring her cup of tea for quite some time. When they got home from work he had stalked off to his office like he had done since their argument a few nights before. 

Neither of them did well when they were at odds. Her mother always told her that it meant they were codependent, but Emily never took relationship advice from a woman who was clearly in a marriage of convenience. 

She puts the spoon in her hand down and turns to look at him. “I can’t.”

“Emily, we don’t hide things from each other.” 

She scoffs at that, “You’ve barely spoken to me in days.” 

“That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” She crosses her arms across her body as if protecting herself from what’s happening. “You’re not the one who has had to ward off questions from the team all week. They are trained to read behaviour after all.” 

“Please speak to me. I know you’re not sleeping, and you’re closing yourself off.” He implores her, ignoring her comments about the team. He’d had enough visits from Derek Morgan over the last few days he thinks he has seen him more recently than he did when he the man’s Unit Chief. “I don’t like not knowing what is on your mind.” 

“I can’t, Aaron. Don’t you get that?” Her voice breaks and all the emotions she has held back over the last few weeks come tumbling to the surface. “ I can’t tell you what I’m thinking because then I’d tell you how heartbroken I am over the fact another woman has given you a child when I couldn’t. I’d tell you how terrified I have been that you’ll go back to her because of it. I’d say how awful those things make me feel because there is a little boy in the centre of it all who didn’t ask for any of this.” 

She finally looks away from him and suppresses a sob as she looks to the floor. “I’d tell you how there is a pregnancy test up in the bathroom that I should have taken four days ago,” this time she does sob and looks back at him, “but I can’t bring myself to take it because my husband won’t even look at me.” 

He closes the gap between them and pulls her into his arms. She resists for a moment before wrapping her arms around him and pressing her wet face into his neck. “Em, sweetheart, I am so sorry.”

Aaron had known since the spare room door slammed shut behind his wife four nights ago that she was right. Something else was going on, and Haley wasn’t being completely honest about everything. Ever since then he had struggled to find the words to express himself to his wife so he simply hadn’t, and as a result she had spiralled completely into her own concerns and fears.

“You know I’d never leave you, don’t you?.” He says, knowing that in this moment that is the only part of what she has said he can address immediately, the rest too complicated for the moment. She doesn’t answer, only buries herself further into his grasp and his makes him frown. He pulls away from her enough so he can look at her, and he hooks a finger under her chin so she looks at him. “Sweetheart, you’ve got to know that.” 

She sniffs. “I do,” She smiles sadly at him, “But she’s your first love. When we first met you were so heartbroken because she left. And now she’s back, and she has a kid. Your kid. If you’d known she was pregnant back then you would have convinced her to stay, and then we wouldn’t be together.”

He couldn’t deny that, and he wouldn’t do her the disservice by lying to her. The thought had occurred to him in the days that followed Haley telling them about Jack. “I didn’t know though. She left without a word, and then I took a job for an ambassador and met her incredible daughter.”

Emily smiles at him wryly and cups his cheek in her hand. “And then you begged me to go for a drink with you.”

He smiles playfully at her. “You and I remember our early days very differently,” she laughs, albeit through her tears, and he becomes serious again. “She may have been my first love, Emily but you are everything to me. I don’t know if I believe in soulmates or anything like that, but if I did you’d be mine.”

Her thumb strokes his cheekbone. “You’d be mine too. If I believed in them.” 

“I’m sorry for being so closed off the last few days, and for making you feel like you couldn’t take the test.” 

“It’s ok.”

“No, it isn’t. I should have thought about it.” 

She nods at that because he should have, but she doesn’t want to hold it against him. “Just don’t leave me alone in this, ok?”

“Never.” He kisses her, pouring all of his love into the kiss before pulling back. “Do you want to do it now?”

Emily shakes his head at him. “No, it's more accurate in the morning. And I just want to spend an evening with you, if that’s ok. One more night won’t change anything.” 

“Of course.” He pushes hair behind her ear and kisses her again. 

“First thing tomorrow though.” She says as they pull apart.

“It’s a date.”  
_______________________________________

_June 1993_

_He wakes her up by pressing a series of kisses into her shoulder. She doesn’t have to be up yet, he knows her plans for the day will likely be around applying for a job she can do until she is old enough to apply for the FBI herself, which is now only a few months away. She had already been doing some free-lance translator work for the local police, which she had been doing throughout college in New Haven too._

_She presses her face slightly further into her pillow, and Aaron smiles to himself. He finds it unendingly amusing that Emily isn’t a morning person._

_“I have to go.” He hates waking her, but he is at her place and the one time he did leave without waking her up had not ended well for him. She moved into this apartment, which she bought with money from her trust fund, around the time they had gone for drinks together._

_Emily grumbles again before turning over and resting her head on his thigh. “Stay.”_

_“I would give anything to stay,” He runs his fingers through her hair as he speaks, “Sadly I don’t think my superiors will see me staying in bed with my girlfriend as a good excuse to miss a briefing. Especially when said girlfriend is the daughter of the last person I was assigned to work for.”_

_She shoots up in bed at that, hand steadying her on his thigh where her head had been resting seconds beforehand. The sheet she’d had wrapped around her falls around her waist. “What did you just call me?” Her tone is a mix of amusement and trepidation._

_He replays what he said in his head and then his brain falters. They had been sleeping together for two months now, but hadn’t really defined anything. It was out of character for him to have no strings attached sex, but despite their lack of conversation around what they were nothing seemed causal between them. He stayed at hers most nights, they went to dinner together, stayed up until the small hours of the morning talking. She talked about his job with him, so desperate to be doing the work herself. In that moment he realised they had fallen into a relationship without even talking about it._

_He decides in that moment just to steer into the skid, although he can hear the uncharacteristic nerves in his own voice that she always seems to bring out of him. “My girlfriend. Is that a problem?”_

_She smiles widely at him, “No. The only problem is my boyfriend is apparently abandoning me for the rest of the day.” She leans forward and kisses him then, wrapping her arms around the back of his neck and pulling him tight to her._

_He responds for a moment, before pulling away. “You are making this much harder than it needs to be.”_

_Emily raises her eyebrows at him before looking down to his crotch. “I’d say so.”_

_He levels his eyes at her, attempting to look unamused but his eyes sparkle at her. “You know that’s not what I meant.” He removes himself from her grasp and the bed and starts to ready himself for work._

_She pulls herself out of bed and puts on his shirt they discarded on the floor the night before, knowing he has another one at her apartment that he can wear to work. She rubs her eyes as she leaves the bedroom and walks down the stairs to the living area. Emily has only just switched the coffee machine on when she hears a knock at her door._

_Still not entirely awake she doesn’t consider her attire or look through the peephole to see who is there before she opens the door. She immediately regrets it when she sees her mother on the other side._

_“Mother.” Her eyes are wide, and any lingering sleepiness is gone in seconds. She steps back and lets Elizabeth in, closing the door behind her. “What are you doing here?”_

_“Can’t a mother drop in on her daughter to say hello?”_

_Whilst Emily has no doubt her mother has noticed she is only wearing a mans shirt, she doesn’t address it. “Not before 8am on a Wednesday. Is everything ok?”_

_“Not everything has an ulterior motive.”_

_Emily fights the urge to tell her mother with her there was always an ulterior motive, but before she can say anything else she hears Aaron descending the stairs, and she closes her eyes to steel herself for what she thinks is about to happen._

_“Em, have you seen my red tie? I could have sworn…” His voice trails off as he rounds the bottom of the stairs to find Emily stood opposite her mother. He recovers quickly, and approaches the two. “Ambassador Prentiss, it’s good to see you.”_

_“Agent Hotchner. Now this is a surprise.” Elizabeth’s tone is cool and even, but the raised eyebrow she sends her daughters way makes Emily internally wince. This was not how she had wanted her mother to find out about her and Aaron._

_“Aaron was just leaving.” Emily says to her mother, but looking directly at him. “I think you said you had another tie in your desk at work.”_

_He quickly understands that she is trying to get him to leave so she can deal with her mother, so he nods. “You’re right.” He takes a step towards her but pauses, unsure how to act under her mothers gaze which has not shifted from him since he appeared in the living room._

_Emily closes the gap between them and steps on her tip toes, their height difference evident with her being barefoot, to press a brief kiss to his lips. “Call me later?” She asks, and smiles when he nods in return._

_She steps past her mother and opens the door and lets him out. She closes the door behind him and turns to face her mother. “Before you start actively judging me for my life choices can I at least go put some more clothes on?”_

_Elizabeth’s expression doesn’t change, although Emily is sure she can see a slight hint of amusement, but she moves over to the couch. “Be my guest.”_

_Emily quickly runs up the stairs and pulls on some sweatpants and replaces Aaron’s shirt with a sweater. She gives herself a second to gather herself before she leaves her bedroom and heads back downstairs._

_Her her mother starts talking before her feet even hit the floor.“It’s inappropriate. He works for the family.”_

_Emily sighs as she walks over to join her mother on the couch, “He works for the FBI. And he doesn’t even work your security clearance anymore.”_

_“He was reassigned 2 weeks ago, Emily. I can assume this thing between the two of you has been going on longer than that.”_

_Emily sighs before answering. “We’ve been seeing each other since the benefit you hosted in April.”_

_“Emily-”_

_She knows that tone, and she doesn’t appreciate it, so she interrupts her mother. “Look, it’s my decision. We are both consenting adults and he’s a good guy.” Emily pauses for a second and pushes some hair behind her ear as she avoids her mothers gaze. “I really like him, Mother.”_

_Elizabeth considers her daughter for a moment, and decides to let it go for now. “Were you going to make coffee or not?” Emily lifts her head at that, narrowing her eyes at her mothers sudden change in subject. “I need to talk to you about an assignment I’ve just picked up.”_

_Emily nods, “Sure.” She got up and walked back to her kitchen, thanking the universe or whoever was out there helping her, for ensuring her mother would be out of the country again for a few months._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! 
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> SequinSmile x

**Author's Note:**

> For clarification: 
> 
> \- In this story Emily is 31 and Hotch is 38. They have known each other 9 years, been together slightly less than that and married for 6.  
> \- The start of this story set in early 2002


End file.
